Years ago, Harry Frankfurt (of On Bullshit* fame) wrote a series of essays arguing that equality is of no intrinsic importance. What matters is that people have enough, not that they are equal. Egalitarianism is beside the point.

Princeton University Press has  just released an  mini-book, On Inequality, that updates and expands on these earlier papers. Frankfurt revised his work, in part as a reaction to Piketty’s Capital.

Here are the back of the book blurbs, including mine:

• “Economic equality is one of today’s most overrated ideas, and Harry G. Frankfurt’s highly compelling book explains exactly why.”–Tyler Cowen, author of Average Is Over
• “Relevant, persuasive, and a pleasure to read, this is the sort of philosophy that ought to be more widely available.”–Gideon A. Rosen, Princeton University
• “Many people who worry about inequality will want to read this wonderful book and will be profoundly influenced by Frankfurt’s clear and forceful arguments. In part, he argues that if we are preoccupied with equality rather than with alleviating poverty we will be estranged from our own lives. That insight alone is worth the price of the book.”–Richard Robb, Columbia University
• “Social justice issues are at the forefront again today, and it’s important that we get the goals right. Frankfurt is not alone in arguing that equality is beside the point. But his important book, infused with characteristic insightfulness, is written in such a way that those who need to hear the message might actually listen.”–Jason Brennan, Georgetown University

Some additional comments, from the beginning of my referee report:

This is an important work written by an eminent scholar, infused with Frankfurt’s characteristic insightfulness. It seems to me to be just the right time to publish this kind of work. Social justice issues are at the fore again, and it’s important that we get the goals of social justice right.

As Frankfurt was one of the first to make clear, material egalitarianism misses the point of social justice. The problem isn’t that some people have more; it’s that some people don’t have enough. The poor of the third world die of starvation, not inequality. The poor suffer because they don’t get what they need, not because they get less than the rich.

…Moreover, he’s making a strong case that they need this clarity. As he argues, if citizens become focused too much on how they rank against others, they’re likely to ignore what really matters: are their legitimate interests being justly served?

Highly recommended

*P.S. On Bullshit is to a significant degree about postmodernism, poststructuralism, and other such popular pseudo-philosophical bullshit that pervades most of the humanities departments.